We plan to arrive Minapin later today and head for Base Camp tomorrow. We will have two days trekk over the Minapin Glacier and arrive BC hopefully the 21st of July. The weatherforecast tells us it will be rain Friday so we hope we are settled in BC then. We hope the weather will be clear by Saturday so we can start climbing to Camp 1. But we will carefully monitor the snow conditions before we start climbing.

Now we feel the mountains are waiting for us!!!

I am unsure about further internett access but I am happy to have Irene, Maria and Jentesport to forward my Sat phone messangers to you.

Gilgit is the capital city of the Gilgit-Baltistan district. It was an important city on the Silk Road. It is considered as a Buddhism corridor from which many Chinese monks came to Kashmir. Now the population is about 10 000 where

This is our third day here and we have been all over the place preparing for our expedition; getting bamboo sticks at the junkyard (the strangest place in Gilgit), getting red fabrick for the sticks, shuffle for Basecamp, ropes, tarpelin, gas, SIM card, 16 meters mattress, postcards and stamps (yes oldfashion), groceries, oil, flour, a new stove for BC, washing powder, spices, exchange of money. We have been to the obligatory meeting with Department of Tourism for registration of our climb, we have visited old friends, been to a 700 years old shrine and already had 3 free taxi rides, lots of mangos, milk tea, phrata and coffe. We have had the neighbours goats visiting us for breakfast, a taxi ride together with 16 meters of mattress in the backseat with 3 persons underneat. We have had a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere, dinner with friends and several visits to the shoemaker.

Now we are testing the tents, packing and doing the final preparations before we head up to Minapin which is the last village before we start our climb.

We plan to arrive Minapin later today and head for Base Camp tomorrow. We will have two days trekk over the Minapin Glacier and arrive BC hopefully the 21st of July. The weatherforecast tells us it will be rain Friday so we hope we are settled in BC then. We hope the weather will be clear by Saturday so we can start climbing to Camp 1. But we will carefully monitor the snow conditions before we start climbing.

Now we feel the mountains are waiting for us!!!

I am unsure about further internett access but I am happy to have Irene, Maria and Jentesport to forward my Sat phone messangers to you.

We have had two days in Kalash Valley visiting the indigenous people of Chitral, whom their ancestors migrated to Chitral from Afghanistan in the 2nd century BC.

On our way to our acclimatization trekk, we watched a polo game in the Pakistani elite series. (The funny thing: we 4 white people were nearly more of an attraction then the national heroes, the polo players)

Our trekk sent over a 4600m mountain pass close to the Afghan boarder and the Wahan Pass. We had all kind of weather; sun, heat, rain, thunderstorm, snow... And we met many interesting people.

Now we are two days in Gilgit preparing for our climb; registration, shopping food, gas, maps...

More updates before we leave Gilgit.

Enjoy your summer!

Greatings from NW Pakistan and the Diran Expedition Team

PS a bit of TMI (too much information) for you: I am actually wearing wool underwear in 32 degrees celcius and it is confy!!!

Everything packed, all set, checked in 44kg all the way. Got it all; awesome wool from @aclima, two tents from @helsport, my goretex jacket from @arcteryx and @jentesport, stove, food, climbing gear, even shuffel and my big boots and a tooth brush!!

I dont know when I will be online again but I will arrive Islamabad Friday morning. There I will meet Irena, Mojca and Tomaz and we will head up to Hindu Kush for a 10 days aclimatization trekk before heading to our mountain.

I am leaving for the expedition soon....only few hours left to do my final packing (panicking-packing)... ​Wish you all a happy summer and thank you so much for all your well wishes!!! Sorry I do not manage to get back to you all...but it really means a lot to me; thanks a million for all your support!I will try to keep you updated here, at the Team Jentesport blog http://blog.jentesport.no and on Facebook A huge thanks to my sponsors ACLIMA AS, Helsport, Arc'teryx, JentesportWe dedicate this climb to raise money to rebuild Nepal.‪#‎aclima‬‪#‎helsport‬‪#‎arcteryx‬‪#‎jentesport‬‪#‎rebuildnepal‬‪#‎quakevolunteers‬

The mountain and the route:Diran is located in the Rakaposhi-Haramosh Range in the western Karakoram in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. This 7,266-metre (23,839 ft) pyramid shaped mountain was first climbed by Austrians Rainer Goschl, Rudolf Pischinger and Hanns Schell in 1968 by the North Face route.

I will give you a more detailed description... but for now:We will hopefully fly from Islamabad to Gilgit as soon as possible, but in case of bad weather, we will hit the road and be prepared for 12-24 hours by buss at the Karakoram High Way. From Gilgit we hope to get a Jeep an set off into the Hunza Valley and get off at the Minapin.Minapin village is the start of the trek to Diran Base Camp.North route: One day from Minapin village to Tagphari. Day two, cross the Minapin Glacier and walk up to Diran Base Camp. Establish Advance Base Camp at 4000m on the glacier below the North Face.South route: Two hours from Chirah to a grassy camp site at Biyabari. Day two, follow the eastern side of the Hinarche Glacier to Hinarche Harai, a camp site below the southwest side of the mountain.

From the glacier we will climb the North Face, picking a route between crevasses and seracs which will vary from year to year. Deep snow could be encountered and the slope is prone to avalanches. We will join the West Ridge at 6300m and climb this to the top, which is a large plateau.